Forgiving the Pontipees
by goblz
Summary: 7 Brides for 7 Brothers Just when did the girls forgive the brothers for kidnapping them? Chapter Four: Ephraim and Liza, now up!
1. Benjamin and Dorcas

**Author's Notes: Wow, I actually am writing a fic for _Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!!_ It's kind of funny, I have loved this movie for so long that I used to make up in my head possible things that could happen with the Pontipee brothers and their wives long before I ever even heard about fanfiction! This movie is definitely one of my all time favorites. Finding fanfiction for it is hard, I don't think there's much out there at all. **

Anyways, this fic will be told in six chapters, one chapter per couple. I am writing this in the order that I feel the girls forgave the guys in. You are free to disagree with me about the order I have chosen, but I have watched these movies so many times that I have reasons for the order I've chosen. 

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the situations they find themselves in, nor do I own the movie. I am making no profit in writing this, except having the joy of finally having something to read about one of my favorite fictitious families! 

Chapter One: Benjamin and Dorcas

The silence among the six girls made Dorcas Gailen uncomfortable. She knew that the other five were all awake, even though all of them were supposed to be sleeping. She suspected that none of them would be sleeping that night.

She didn't know if the other girls had realized, but they were sleeping in the very beds of the men who had kidnapped them. It didn't make her afraid; she knew that they weren't going to try anything. They were holed up in the smelly barn, but it was not nearly as much as they deserved. Her heart swelled with anger as she thought of the younger six Pontipees.

Benjamin, second oldest of the seven brothers, was her captor. He had pulled her out of her bedroom window right as she had blown out the candle. She could only imagine what had gone through her poor sister's head, hearing Dorcas scream and then relighting the candle to an empty room.

The image of her sister made her very angry, but the biggest cause of her rage was that she had really liked Benjamin. When they met at the dance, she had been smitten. Her father was one of the few townsfolk who recognized that the fight at the barn-raising hadn't been started by the Pontipees and that they really had no choice but to fight back. She was sure that had Benjamin come to town wanting to court her, her family would have let him. She spent two months wishing he would come for her; she had even almost told her suitor, Matt, that she wanted to stop seeing him. She hadn't expected Benjamin to come for her like this.

He had treated her different at the barn dance. He was sweeter to her than Matt ever had been. Matt had acted like he had a right to her, whereas Benjamin treated her like just standing near her was a gift. He had stirred up feelings in her that she had never felt about Matt. The biggest difference, however, was that Matt never would have taken her against her will. Cocky though he was, he never would have crossed the line.

Dorcas heard sniffling in the next bed. It was Alice Elcott, the youngest of the six kidnapped girls. Alice was easily the sweetest and most innocent of them. Dorcas wanted to comfort the younger girl but she didn't know how. She was still in need of comfort herself, especially since it was so dark in the room. Even though she knew the actual danger was over, and that Benjamin wouldn't come near her, especially with Milly so close, being in the dark was making her nervous. Every time she would think back to earlier that night when she had blown out the candle and then been grabbed and pulled out the window, her heart jumped.

She was going to get back at him. Benjamin Pontipee was not going to get away with what he'd done. She didn't quite know how yet, but she had several months to figure it out. And so she spent the rest of that sleepless night wondering how to exact her revenge, and wishing she hadn't turned out to be so wrong about the one man she had thought she could have fallen for.

* * *

He had to apologize to her. That was about the only clear thought that ran through Benjamin Pontipee's head as he attended to his daily chores on the farm for the entire first week that the girls were on the farm. All six of them were still inside; not one of them had come out and he hadn't seen a single glimpse of any of them. They were angry, and they had a right to be. Thinking back, Benjamin couldn't believe that he and his younger brothers had followed Adam so quickly in his idea to kidnap the girls. Not one of them had seen anything wrong with what they were going to do; it wasn't until afterwards and the deed couldn't be undone that they had seen their gross mistake.

Benjamin had gotten used to sleeping in the barn quickly, aside from having to put up with the smell. Milly had given them all their things; she had dropped off their clothes and food the very first night so they wouldn't have to come to the house for anything. There was always something to be done on the farm so the boys at least could never say they were bored.

It was a week to the day since the kidnappings. He and Gideon had wondered as they ate their cold breakfast that morning when they would be seeing the girls next. Frank had walked by and said they probably wouldn't see them at all until spring. They had frowned at that thought but then quickly finished their food and went out to get some wood chopping done before more snow came in.

As he gathered up some dry wood for chopping, he thought about how he would even get near enough to Dorcas to apologize to her. He couldn't go into the house, and Dorcas wasn't coming out. He didn't dare ask Milly to talk to her; his sister-in- law would probably wring him with her bare hands if he so much as mentioned Dorcas.

Eventually she would have to come outside, Benjamin decided. But the resolution of that problem brought up an even tougher situation.

How could he apologize to her? Exactly what was he supposed to say when he went up to her? What he had done was unforgivable, and he probably shouldn't be reminding her of the hell he had put her through. Perhaps he could ask Milly how to bring up the subject.

With a heavy sigh, Benjamin remembered that Milly wasn't even talking to the boys. She was angry and ashamed of them. In many ways, Milly reminded Benjamin of his mother. She had died when he was ten years old, seventeen years ago. He didn't remember her as being quite as strong-minded as Milly but he knew she would have been furious with her sons for what they had done. She had always expected the very best from them, just like Milly did. He hated that Milly was so angry with them.

The feeling he hated most of all was his own shame. He kept thinking back on Dorcas crying on the porch with the other girls, Milly's furious face as she told them they weren't to step foot in the house while the girls were there, and the awful feeling he had in his stomach as he realized that it wasn't okay that the girls were crying. It wasn't okay that he and his brothers had carried the girls off. 

And then to top off everything, Adam had left. Benjamin knew his older brother could take care of himself, but he was still concerned. Things in the family had run fairly smooth up until a week ago, and now everything seemed to be in disarray.

So he was determined to fix things with Dorcas. Or at least, apologize to her. That was about as right as he could probably make it, but he was going to do at least that much. He figured that he could probably live with her never talking to him again so long as he knew that he had told her how badly he felt.

Frank jerked his older brother out of his thoughts by calling out his name, nodding his head towards the house. They were done chopping wood, so they were to leave most of it on the porch of the house and take the rest to the barn to keep themselves warm. He nodded towards Frank and Gideon, gathered up his pile, and followed them to the house. Along the way, his two younger brothers stopped at a window. Sarah and Alice were smiling at them from inside. Then, with a quick look at each other, the girls glared at them and threw snowballs straight at their heads.

Gideon and Frank quickly turned around, dropping their wood, and tried to cover their heads with their hands, as if the snowballs were hurting them. Benjamin couldn't help but laugh at his two youngest brothers.

"What's the matter, afraid of a little snowball?" he asked them, still laughing. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, something sharp hit him square in the back of the head. He turned quickly, his hands flying to his head, to see Dorcas standing at the doorway behind him with a wicked glare on her face. He looked down to see the crumbled snowball she had thrown at him.

Bending down, he picked up the rock that lay in the middle. "Snowballs with rocks in them!" he told his brothers, picking up his wood. "Them poor little dears!! Sobbing buckets of tears." The girls continued to glare after them as the brothers walked away.

* * *

The three brothers arrived back at the barn just a few minutes afterwards to find their other three brothers there. Benjamin quickly realized that all six girls had collaborated in showing the brothers just what they thought of them. Caleb appeared to be fine, as himself, Frank, and Gideon were, but Daniel and Ephraim were soaked. Both were up in the loft changing clothes as Caleb explained to the other three that Martha and Liza had dumped bowls of cold water out the window, straight onto them.

"Are you two all right?" Benjamin demanded as the two descended the loft onto the ground.

"Yes, just a bit cold," Daniel assured him, shivering a bit.

Benjamin immediately grabbed the nearest blanket and gave it to Dan. Gideon followed up and gave one to Ephraim. "Make sure you don't get pneumonia," Benjamin told them. "You two should get a small fire going and get yourselves warm."

"There are a lot of things that need to be done!" Daniel protested. "Especially since Adam's gone and we have to pick up his share of the work."

"There are still four of us working," Caleb pointed out, quickly agreeing with his older brother. "Your hair is still wet, and so is yours, Ephraim. Things'd be a lot worse if the two of you got sick."

"Then again, Milly would probably let us into the house," Ephraim pointed out.

"Yeah I don't reckon she'd be happy if she found out the girls made us sick," Daniel added.

"Just stay here and get yourselves warm. When you're feeling better—and dryer—you can come back out and help. Make sure you don't come out too soon," Benjamin told them with a stern look.

"Hey, you're handling this big-brother bit in Adam's place really well," Ephraim told him with a slight smirk.

"I've always been your big brother," Benjamin snapped, taking all his brothers aback, and then stormed out of the barn. He wasn't mad at them, but for some reason the comment about being an older brother in Adam's place really bothered him. He had always been their older brother, just not their oldest brother. He would have reacted the same way even if Adam had been there.

And he was mad at Martha and Liza. This was their first winter at the farm, but it certainly wasn't their first winter and they should have known better than to dump cold water on anyone, no matter how mad they were. One thing was for sure: the girls were not going to keep doing this. Today was the first and last time. Now that they had shown themselves to the boys, maybe Benjamin could find Dorcas alone and somehow convey to her his apologies.

* * *

His chance to apologize came that evening just before sundown, which was quicker than he had expected. He had been working all day shoveling out paths with his brothers, chopping wood, and feeding the livestock, and they were just about to head back to the barn. Daniel and Ephraim never ended up joining them, so Benjamin wanted to check on them and make sure they were all right; besides he was getting awfully hungry and was ready for dinner. He sent Caleb, Frank, and Gideon back to the barn while he finished up the very last of the shoveling. He was just about to head for barn himself when he saw Dorcas standing by fence on the side of the house. She looked to be alone, and when he met her eyes she looked away quickly. Slightly suspicious that she'd been watching him, he slowly approached her.

"Bit of a cold night to be out when the sun goes down," he told her. She glared at him, so he stopped walking towards her, putting his hands up to show her that he wasn't going to do anything.

Dorcas seemed to be hesitating, like she didn't know what to say to him. "Are you… I mean… your head doesn't hurt anymore does it?" she blurted out finally.

"My head? Oh… No, it's fine." Suddenly he felt very awkward.

"Good. I mean, well… not _good,_ but I just didn't want you to have another concussion."

"It was just a rock, Dorcas," Benjamin assured her, failing to hide a smile. "Not nearly like having a hammer thrown on you." He thought back to the day of the barn raising, when he had first met her.

Usually when he remembered that day, he would remember how beautiful she looked and how she had smiled at him when their eyes had first come in contact. Now he was remembering what Dorcas had been referring to when she mentioned having a concussion: just before the fight had broken out during the actual raising of the barn, Dorcas' town suitor, Matt, had thrown a hammer down onto his head. He'd had enough adrenaline to fight well and had luckily still been standing with his brothers at the end, but he'd given them and Milly quite a fright later by falling asleep in the wagon on the way home. He had woken up to their terrified faces; apparently it had taken them nearly ten minutes to wake him up, though they hadn't given a thought to him being asleep until they'd gotten back to the farm. Milly saw to him first, wrapping bandages around his head that remained there for a week, and the day afterwards she refused to let him out of bed.

"Right, well.. I'm glad you're all right, even if I was the one who threw it at you," she told him, still apprehensive about talking to him at all.

"Listen, Dorcas… I've been meaning to talk to you, but I haven't gotten a chance until now. I just want to tell you that I'm sorry… for what I did. I'm sorry that I kidnapped you, really I am. If I could take it back and make it so it never happened, I would. But I can't, so I just wanted you to know that I know it was wrong and that I feel awfully for it."

She was quiet for a minute, causing dread to sink back into his stomach. Suddenly he was more anxious about what she was going to say than he ever had been about anything before.

"I'm not saying that I forgive you," she explained carefully. "But I accept your apology."

He nodded, knowing that was the best he could get from her. He started to step away but she stopped him. "Benjamin, wait. If you… if you want to meet me near the fence on the opposite side of the barn tomorrow right about this time, maybe we can talk some more."

She watched him closely as he smiled at her, nodded his head, and said he would be there. She smiled back as he turned around and headed for the barn. He didn't know it, but he had said to her exactly what she wanted to hear; and suddenly her heart was melting again at the thought of him being near. Even though what he had done was wrong, knowing that he knew that was somehow gratifying; having an apology suddenly made things much better. And now she knew that he had returned the feelings she felt for him.

She didn't know what they would talk about or how things would eventually turn out, but she did know one thing that he did not: she had just forgiven him.


	2. Gideon and Alice

**Chapter Two: Gideon and Alice**

Alice Elcott smirked as she watched Ruth Jenson light up as if her biggest daydream had come true. Ruth's eyes, light as the day, followed Caleb Pontipee across the room and back to the front door—anyone could clearly see she was smitten. Although she found it funny, Sarah, a girl sitting next to them, looked shocked.

Two and a half weeks had passed since the kidnappings but Ruth seemed to have forgotten the reason why she was stuck on the farm. Alice actually found it amusing. The Pontipee brothers had been nothing but courteous to them since they kidnappings so Alice had a suspicion that she wasn't the only one who was starting to lighten up towards them.

Caleb left, his gaze on Ruth as long possible. Not a minute later, another knock on the door interrupted the reading, and this time, Benjamin entered.

"My leg is feeling poorly," he explained, rubbing his right leg. "I need some linamen."

Milly told him to be quick about it, but he took about two steps before stopping in front of Dorcas. The two were smiling at each other, and again Alice smirked. Of the six kidnapped girls, Dorcas was the only one who had stopped doing pesky little things to annoy the brothers. In fact, she had only participated once and then it was as if her anger was abated. Alice had also noticed that at the same time every day, about half an hour before sundown Dorcas was nowhere to be found in house. When she would reappear in the bedroom the girls shared later, she always seemed much more light-hearted than she had in the entire day. The young blonde was pretty sure she knew what was happening there.

When Benjamin had gone, another knock on the door drew Milly out of her seat. When she opened the door, the four youngest Pontipees all stood at the door, claiming to want to come in for some reason or another.

Gideon stood in front, his neck craned to one side, and he told Milly he had a stiff neck. Milly wasn't having any of it, however, shut the door on all four. Alice watched, feeling a bit disappointed that Gideon hadn't been allowed in like Caleb and Benjamin.

Not that she had forgiven him. No, she was still furious with him over the entire matter, but that did not mean he wasn't good to look at. Gideon Pontipee was a fine looking boy; much cuter than her suitor back home.

Alice didn't even noticed when Milly started reading from the book again; she was daydreaming about Gideon chopping wood, wishing she could dispel her anger at him as easily as Dorcas had with Benjamin. Next thing she knew, Sarah was shaking her out of her thoughts. Milly wasn't reading anymore and all the girls sat there in silence, looking uncomfortable. Apparently she hadn't been the only one daydreaming.

Gideon walked back into barn with a scowl. He hadn't gotten into the house to see Alice like Caleb and Benjamin had; he cursed them for getting to the door first. And now Caleb had an extra blanket to show for it.

"Wouldn't let you guys in would she?" Caleb asked with a laugh as his younger brothers all walked solemnly into the barn. From his perch in the loft, Benjamin looked down on the four of them with a smirk.

Going to the house in need of something had been Benjamin's idea; he had come into the barn from who-knew-where and told his brothers his plan to go to the house and tell Milly that he needed some linamen for his leg so that he could see Dorcas. Gideon didn't know why Benjamin thought he needed to do so; all the brothers knew that he was meeting Dorcas at the fence before sundown every day to talk to Dorcas, even though Benjamin didn't know they knew. Secretly, Gideon suspected the whole plan had actually been Dorcas' idea.

The brothers all loved it so much that they all tried to push their way in front of Benjamin to beat him to the door. Only Caleb managed to get in front of him, promising his older brother that he would come up with his own reason to need to get inside the house. 

"How did you get Dorcas to talk to you again anyway?" Gideon asked Benjamin a bit sourly as he settled into his own "bed."

"I saw her watching me that day girls threw rocks and snow and water at us," he explained. "So I went up to her and apologized."

"That day?" Daniel repeated, sounding appalled. "You mean she stopped doing it to you after only one day?"

"Well, yeah. Didn't the other girls?"

"NO!" came a chorus of replies from the other five brothers.

Benjamin laughed heartily. "Guess I got lucky then," he said.

"So, you just apologized and she forgave you?" Gideon asked, stuck on the fact that Dorcas had forgiven his second eldest brother.

"Well, no. She wanted to make sure I was sincerely sorry and that I knew why it was wrong. But she did warm up to me fairly quick, and we've been talking every day since."

"We know," the five youngest said in harmony.

Silence fell over the brothers after that, and Gideon wondered why, if an apology was all that Dorcas needed, Alice still hadn't come around to him. He had apologized the first night, and he had meant it. He had seen what they had done wrong when he saw the angry, ashamed look on Milly's face the night they brought home the girls. It wasn't as though Alice had more to be angry about than Dorcas. She was obviously just less willing to let go.

Should he apologize again? Would it make any difference? The only time she ever came near him was to throw snowballs at him, although he had to admit it seemed like her heart wasn't in it as much lately. Did that mean that she was starting to come around? Or maybe she was just sick of looking at him. Maybe she was just accepting that she was stuck here until the pass was open and had decided that she wasn't going to waste her energy on him anymore.

His head started hurting at all these thoughts, and he still had no idea what Alice was thinking. It was too bad he couldn't turn to Milly about it; she was the only one who could give sound advice about a girl. So Gideon attempted to put Alice out of his mind so he could sleep. But once he had nodded off, his dreams were filled with her sweet face.

Alice was almost asleep when she heard Dorcas stirring loudly in the bed next to her. The blonde turned over in her bed to attempt sleep again but quickly realized that Dorcas was walking towards the bedroom door. It slid open slowly and then shut, and Dorcas was no longer in the room. Curious, Alice also stepped quietly out of bed and followed her.

She found Dorcas in the living room boiling water in the fireplace. "Are you all right Dorcas?" she whispered so as not to wake anyone up.

"Oh, Alice, I hope I didn't wake you up."

"You didn't," Alice assured her. "I was already awake. Why are you making tea so late at night?"

"I couldn't sleep. Back at home whenever I couldn't sleep Ma would make me some tea. So I thought that might help me tonight."

Thoughts of her own mother filled Alice's mind. "I miss my mother," she whispered softly, not realizing she had just spoken.

Dorcas smiled. "We all miss our families," she replied. "Would you like some tea?"

"Oh yes that would be wonderful." The two sat down on the couch as they waited for the water to boil. "You seemed awfully happy to see Benjamin tonight."

At that Dorcas couldn't hold back a grin. "Yes. He is very good looking, you know."

"Yes, they are all good looking. But the rest of us girls aren't going out to meet any of them by the fence a half hour before sundown," Alice said.

Dorcas grinned a bit wickedly. "No, none of you are."

"So why are you?"

"Because I forgave Benjamin, that's why."

"I thought you had."

"Oh, well he doesn't know that yet, so please don't tell him."

"Dorcas, he knows," Alice told her flatly.

Dorcas just shrugged. When a moment went by without words, the tall brunette looked over to Alice. "You wonder why, don't you?"

The reverend's daughter nodded. "I mean what they did was so awful."

"Well he said he was sorry, and I knew that he meant it."

"So?"

"So, maybe you don't realize how much that meant to hear," Dorcas replied. "Gideon apologized to you almost immediately, and don't tell me he didn't mean it because it was plain that he did."

"But aren't you still mad that he just came into town, grabbed you from your bedroom and took you away from your entire family? We'll be here the better part of a year with no way to make contact with anyone."

"No, I'm not angry anymore. That's what forgiveness is, Alice. If I was still mad, I wouldn't have forgiven him. I don't know how things were with you and Gideon before the kidnapping, but I liked Benjamin immediately at the barn raising. Now, he made a mistake, and it's one I know he'll never make again. He knows much better now, and in the end he's still the same person he was before. A man that I liked very much. Now if you can say that about Gideon then you may just find yourself in the same place as me."

"I keep daydreaming about him chopping wood, or doing other miscellaneous chores on the farm," the blonde admitted.

"Is it summertime and he's not wearing a shirt?" Dorcas asked her as if she had dreamed the same thing about Benjamin.

Alice stared at her.

"No, I guess it isn't," Dorcas stated, completely unphased. She looked over and saw Alice blushing and looking embarrassed. She added with a grin, "But it probably will be now."

After breakfast, Alice sought Gideon out in the barn. When she first walked in, she didn't think anyone was there but she soon found him in one of the stables, brushing one of the horses.

He saw her before she could say anything, and he looked surprised to see her. "No snowballs," she promised with a smile. He returned the smile and exited the stable, coming out to meet her.

"What are you doin' out here?" he asked her, still looking surprised.

"I came to see you," she replied, feeling a bit out of place.

"What for?"

"To… talk. I, uh… Well we haven't talked at all since I got here."

Gideon looked dumbfounded. "Why do you want to talk to me?"

"Well, because. Dorcas and Benjamin meet out by the fence and talk every night, you know."

"Yeah, I know that. What's what got to do with us?" he asked in a state of deep oblivion.

"Well, that all started because he apologized and then she forgave him," Alice explained, but Gideon didn't seem to follow her. "All right, you already apologized to me," she went on.

"I meant it, Alice, honest. All I could think about after meeting you at the barn raising was of you, and how I wanted to be with you but there didn't seem to be any way we could. And then Adam came along with this stupid idea…" he trailed off, looking back at her. "So you wanted me to apologize to you again?"

"I always knew you meant it the first time," she admitted. "But these last couple weeks have been really hard on me. I've never not lived with my parents before. For you it would be like being ripped away from your brothers unwillingly and having no way to get back to them."

Gideon looked horrified at the thought.

"You see? Your brothers are all you've known. And it's all your fault I'm in this position at all. You were the one who took me away from my family, didn't give me a choice about it at all, and I'm completely cut off from them. I miss them a lot."

He was staring at her with wide eyes, not knowing whether he should say something comforting, apologize again, or just stay silent.

"So here I am with you, I'm going to be up here for several more months, and you're going to be here. I might as well just get over it because there isn't anything I can do about it. I thought about you a lot too after the barn-raising. My parents hated you but I used to wish you would show up on my doorstep and win them over."

"I don't think I'll ever win them over now," Gideon replied.

"You don't have to win them over anymore," Alice told him. "I've decided to let go of my anger with you. That doesn't mean you can court me or anything, but…" she trailed off and gave him a peck on the cheek. Blushing furiously, she turned and walked briskly out of the barn.


	3. Caleb and Ruth

**A/N: This chapter took me a very long time. It went through a couple of bad starts and a rewrite, because I couldn't get clear in my mind exactly what I wanted with these two. They are such a cute couple! Anywayz,nothing from this chapter comes from the movie, like some stuff from the previous chapters. **

** Thank you to everyone who's reviewed! Reviews make me happy. I hope you like this chapter. Any guesses on the next couple?  
**

**Chapter Three: Caleb and Ruth**

She was falling in love with Caleb Pontipee. She couldn't help herself, and this fact caused Ruth Jenson no small amount of aggravation. She could see plainly that the other girls were also falling for the men who had kidnapped them, and she got the idea that some of them were more open to the idea than she was.

She sat by the window in the bedroom, watching as the snow continued to fall. Today the winds were strong and the snow was falling at a furious pace. The other girls were downstairs with Milly building a fire in the fireplace. Cold though she was with one measly blanket wrapped around her dress, she wanted to take the opportunity to be alone. It seemed ridiculous to have no privacy on such a large farm, but it was too cold and the snow was too deep to venture out alone. Two months ago she might have been able to go out but she hadn't wanted to risk running into one of the brothers milling about doing chores. She had been slightly afraid them; all the girls had been except for Dorcas.

Now she couldn't help wondering if they were warm enough out there. She hadn't spent much time with any of them; she had merely talked once or twice to Caleb, but she had spent the last two months on their farm and it was becoming increasingly obvious that, in spite of the kidnappings, the six brothers were actually pretty nice guys. She'd witnessed a few times the deep caring relationship all six of them had with their sister-in-law.

Milly wasn't mad at them anymore but was holding strong to her conviction that they couldn't come into the house. It was a fair punishment, but on such bitterly cold days Ruth worried for their health, particularly Caleb.

With a sigh, Ruth got up for another blanket. She knew they'd survived several winters on their own and that they could take care of themselves; she also knew that Milly loved her brothers, and that if one or more of them showed signs of getting sick, she would cease her no-house rule. That would make things even more uncomfortable as there weren't enough beds in the house for all thirteen of them.

Hearing Alice calling up to her, Ruth decided she should probably join the others. Milly wanted to bake a few pies and Ruth already knew that one of them was going to the brothers. Dorcas would probably volunteer quite eagerly to take it to them.

She rose to her feet, still staring out the window, remembering the last time she had made a pie. Caleb had pulled her out the window when she'd gone to put the pie in the sill for it to cool off. Her uncle had been waiting in the living room for her; they always ended the night by talking to each other over tea. He'd raised her since she was eight years old, after her father had died. He'd taken in his brother's daughter without hesitation, since his own wife had died before giving him any children. He'd raised Ruth like she was his own daughter and she loved him very much.

For the last few years he'd been telling her that she needed to find a nice young man to marry, and he didn't seem to agree with her that none of the men in town were right for her. They were courteous enough, but for most of them that was where it ended. The one man she had ever dared to ask him about he had given a sharp "no."

The day of the barn raising, Caleb had told Ruth he would follow her to the ends of the earth, and her heart had melted then and there. After the massive fight that had ensued afterwards, however, Ruth knew that her uncle wouldn't approve. Not that it would have mattered, because she hadn't seen Caleb again until the night he kidnapped her.

"Ruth!" Liza called from downstairs. "Are you all right? What's taking you so long?"

"I'm coming," Ruth called back, standing up. So much for privacy, she thought. She glanced out the window once more and saw Caleb chopping some wood with Daniel. She sighed. If things had been different, then maybe there could have been a chance that she could be with Caleb. The way things really were, however, did not allow for that. Come springtime, when the pass reopened, Ruth's uncle, along with the rest of the men in town, would be coming up here. With a small shudder, she turned away from the window.

* * *

Milly was acting differently. Not that she'd been her cheery self since the night of the kidnappings, but Caleb was sure this was different. She was doing less work, asking for more and more help when a month ago she barely asked for any. Something was going on.

He and Daniel dropped off half of the chopped wood in front of the house, as the brothers had been doing every night, and took the rest of it back to the barn. Milly had already dropped off the food she had made for them, knowing that her brothers-in-law would probably starve themselves before they'd eat each other's cooking.

The brothers gathered around a makeshift table to eat, the same way they did every night. They were all used to living in the barn now; a fact that Caleb lamented deeply. He missed living in the house. They had all grown up in that house, afterall. He missed having a warm bed to sleep in and he missed being able to sit by the fire when he was cold. When he could finally go back to the house, he would not miss the smell of the horses at night. There were several months left to go until then.

Ruth would be gone then. He would miss her. In fact, he missed her already. Unlike Dorcas, Ruth had hardly come out of the house. Kidnapping her had done absolutely nothing for him. Milly wasn't angry anymore but she was still deeply disappointed. Adam was gone, not to come back until the pass was reopened. He wished he could take that night back.

"I saw you and Alice talking by the hen house," Frank commented to Gideon.

"So?" Gideon asked as he took a bite out of the warm bread. "She's very insistent that I can't court her. Her father would never approve. However, there are six more months left until spring, and I think she'll change her mind."

"What makes you think that?" Caleb asked. Gideon shrugged and would say no more on the matter.

Benjamin was also fairly tight-lipped about Dorcas. No one asked him many questions about it anymore. The fact that Dorcas had forgiven him so quickly and was so eager to talk to him just reminded everyone else that their girls weren't even speaking to them.

Sleep evaded him that night, and it wasn't the first time in the last two months it had done so. The stiff ground was hard on his back and neck; even with an extra blanket he was always cold. Even on nights when he could force himself to ignore these things, thoughts of Ruth would still taunt him. He wanted to speak to her, wanted her to speak to him in more than a cautiously polite tone. He feared that by the time she was willing to warm up to him, it would be too late.

* * *

The next day, Caleb was determined to find Ruth, even though she hadn't come out of the house once. So he busied himself with chores that put himself near the windows. Today the snow fell heavily and it was extremely cold; his brothers were in a hurry to get everything done and return to the relative warmth of the barn. Caleb, on the other hand, lingered by the windows for as long as possible without getting caught by Milly. Once he spotted the fire in the fireplace, and his body shuddered as it longed to go inside and warm up.

Blowing hot air onto his freezing hands, Caleb had rounded the house under the pretense of doing chores three times trying to find a way to signal to Ruth that he wanted to talk to her. His brothers had gone to the barn an hour ago. Caleb was tempted to give it up and go get warm. He felt like he was about to turn into ice right where he was. With a heavy sigh, he peered into the kitchen window one last time and saw Ruth in there. She was alone, much to Caleb's relief.

He knocked on the window, and she jumped. When she saw him waving her outside, she grabbed and blanket and quickly went outside. "Is something wrong?" she asked, concerned. "You're freezing! Let me get you a blanket."

And before he could protest, she had gone back into the house. He stood by the door waiting and when she came out, she brushed the snow off his coat. He just stood there as she proceeded to put the blanket around him. He could feel his nerves kick in as she started shaking the snow out of his hair.

"Are you sure it's a good idea for you to be doing chores today? You could freeze."

An involuntary shiver went through him, and he winced as he saw the lines of concern in her face deepen. "I'll go back to the barn in a minute," he promised her. "I just… I wanted to talk to you for a minute."

She looked startled. "Oh."

"Is that all right? If you want me to go, if you don't want to talk to me—"

"No, I do," she said quickly, placing her hand on his arm as he started to turn away. "What is it?"

Caleb faltered slightly, unsure of how to start. When she started to shiver herself, he thought it best to just get it out. "It's been a couple months since… everything happened," he said finally. "I haven't really gotten a proper chance to apologize to you for kidnapping you."

She blinked, surprise in her face. "Caleb, why are you risking your health to say you're sorry?"

This time he was surprised. "I'm not risking my health."

"Yes, you are. I don't see any of your brothers out here working; the few times I've looked out the window today the only person I saw working was you, and you seemed to be doing everything strangely close to the windows of this house."

He chuckled slightly, realizing she'd seen through him. "The others did some chores earlier," he told her truthfully. "They were just quicker about it."

The way she looked at him then made him feel exposed, but she didn't say anything. Instead, he knew she was waiting for him to continue. "It's important to me that you know how sorry I am. I can't take it back. I just… I wish I had tried to find a better way. I wish I hadn't done something that made you hate me."

She looked down to the ground. Silence passed between the two of them. "I don't hate you," she said finally. "I did a couple of months ago, but not anymore."

The relief that spread through him made him smile. "It makes me really happy to hear you say that. I figured you would still hate me when you leave in the spring."

Her smile was sad. "No." She looked up at the snow that was falling beyond the cover of the house. "You should get back to the barn, Caleb. But before you do, wait just a second."

She disappeared into the house again. There was no promise that they would be friends, no promise that she would talk to him after this, but she didn't hate him and for now that was all Caleb had wanted. It was enough.

When Ruth returned, she was carrying an armful of blankets. "There are tons of extra blankets in the house, and we're all working on new ones, too, so take these back to the barn. I don't want any of you to get sick."

He took the blankets and thanked her. He turned to walk away and she called out to him.

"Maybe I'll talk to you again soon?"


	4. Ephraim and Liza

**Author's Notes: It's been over four years since my last update. I am so sorry! I had started writing chapter four pretty quickly after posting chapter three, but I struggled with this couple a lot. Liza and Ephraim are both among my favorite characters, but Liza is a much stronger character than Ephraim and he's one of the less used characters, if not the least used, in the movies. I had to feel him out a lot, and so I hope I did okay.**

Chapter Four

Liza stood on the porch outside of the Pontipee house, awkwardly trying to keep herself wrapped in her blanket as she tried to sweep off the light dusting of snow that managed to accumulate under the protection of the roof. It was a mundane task—in a few hours there would be more, and it was too cold for anyone to do much but go outside, sweep it off, and go back in. Milly and the men went outside for chores and to feed the animals, but the girls, for the most part, stayed inside.

Day in and day out, all the weather did was continue to blizzard. The girls made pies and read to each other while Milly helped the boys on the farm. Dorcas went out for about fifteen minutes every day, bundled in a couple of blankets. She didn't even bother trying to hide it anymore that she and Benjamin talked almost every day, but she never told anyone what they talked about. Ruth had sewn a few blankets over the past month but they'd seemed to disappear and Liza had a good idea who they'd gone to. She'd seen Ruth talking to Caleb out the window or on the porch a few times, and on occasion Alice and Gideon as well.

When she finished sweeping, Liza stayed outside in spite of the cold and watched the snowfall. At a calmer pace, it would be peaceful and beautiful. But now… The sharp wind stung her face. The snow she stared at trapped her, kept her from her parents, forced her to live in a small house with six other girls who, while some of her closest friends, were driving her crazy. And in a few minutes the snow would drive her back into that house, where Ruth's cheery disposition and Sarah's tendency to take everything personally would make her feel incredibly moody. She'd spent the last two months cooped up in that house, and just a few days ago the girls had gotten into a fight that Liza knew she was at least partly to blame for. But she couldn't help it. She needed to have an outlet for the frustrations she had.

Just as she was about to turn back towards the house, a figure approaching the house from the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was Ephraim, the fifth-born of the seven Pontipee brothers, carrying a pile of firewood up to the house. He looked surprised to see her; their contact had been minimal. She'd made sure that they saw each other on her terms, and because it had been awhile since she'd felt like pouring water on him, they hadn't seen each other for several weeks.

"Hello," he greeted cautiously, that shy smile appearing on his face. It was the same smile she'd fallen for at the barn raising, but it meant nothing to her now.

She returned the greeting in a bit of a stony voice, and started to turn back towards the house. "I was just going back inside."

"Do you have enough wood for the fire? I mean… for the house?" he called out, halting her steps.

"Just put that in the stock and if we need some then we can get it."

"Liza…"

She turned back to him fully. "Listen. I'm not talking to you. I know what's been going on with Dorcas and Benjamin, and Ruth and Caleb, and even Alice and Gideon. That's not going to happen with us.

Again Liza turned back to the house, she almost got to the door when two words stopped her.

"I'm sorry."

She turned back to him again, setting the broom against the house and wrapping she shawl tighter. The look on his face was sincere, ashamed, and even… guilt ridden. All of that on such an innocent looking face.

"I believe you," she replied after a minute. "But that doesn't change anything."

She saw his guilty expression dissolve into sadness as she turned and went into the house. He'd caused this, he could deal with the repercussions.

* * *

Women.

Ephraim glared at Benjamin as the brothers ate together around the small campfire. Why did Dorcas talk to Benjamin every day, smile and laugh with him, when Liza was so determined to not even see Ephraim? They were guilty of the same thing, had done the exact same thing. Where was the difference?

Benjamin looked startled at his younger brother's glare. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Ephraim lied, but he couldn't keep the annoyance from his voice. He'd never been a good liar. Pretty quickly all of his brothers were looking at him strangely.

"I'm just sick of living in our barn," Ephraim explained, deciding that since he was sick of eating and sleeping with the livestock, he wasn't lying and his brothers should at least believe him on that.

"Well, why are you glaring at me for that? We're all here because we're all guilty," Benjamin defended himself a bit testily.

"Exactly," Ephraim muttered.

The older brother raised his eyebrows but said nothing, putting his empty dish down and getting up. "I'm going to go make sure there's enough wood in the pile for the night.

"I checked before dinner, it's full," Gideon said. "Guess the girls didn't need much today."

"No, I, uh, stocked it up about an hour ago," Daniel cut in with a small cough. At everyone's stare, he shrugged. "What?"

"It was Ephraim's day to stock the wood pile," Caleb answered.

"Which I did do," Ephraim threw in immediately.

"Yeah, well, I noticed it was starting to get a little low…"

"And you saw Ephraim talking to Liza when he stocked it, so you hoped it might work for you," Frank stated.

Again, Daniel shrugged. "The girls just needed some firewood, that's all."

"So I take it Liza wasn't very open about talking to you," Benjamin said, continuing his walk towards the front door. He passed the corner stable and stopped, staring down at the ground.

"Something wrong?" Caleb asked innocently; Ephraim realized Ben was staring down at the spot where Caleb slept.

"Where did you get all of those extra blankets?"

"Extra blankets?!?" Frank demanded as everyone got up to see.

Ephraim peered over Daniel's shoulder, seeing seven blankets crumpled together surrounding a pillow. Milly had given them each two blankets, and while Caleb had managed to acquire a third one from her, none of them had received anymore since then.

"They just… uh, you know, appeared… Okay, Ruth gave them to me."

"Are you serious?" Gideon exclaimed. "How long have you been getting these?"

"A couple of weeks."

What followed was a rather loud power struggle between the brothers to get the extra blankets. Gideon managed to sneak away with one without being noticed by the others, who all spent about ten minutes in a rather childish tug of war. Ephraim went to "bed" that night scowling as he tucked himself under his two blankets, praying for spring to come quickly and end it—all of it.

* * *

That night Liza dreamed of the dance at the barn-raising. The dream replayed every moment of that dance, every partner she'd had that day and how she'd reveled in Ephraim's arms.

So when, at the en of the dance, she jumped into Frank's arms, Liza jerked awake. It was true--she had jumped into Frank's arms at the barn-raising dance, and Sarah into Ephraim's, but it hadn't taken long for them to switch. Ephraim had a personality that had appealed to her. He was sweet and caring, which she hadn't expected from a backwoodsman. She loved how she felt when he put his arms around her--safe and protected.

None of the suitors she'd had before had done that for her. Of course, many of them just wanted a woman before all the available ones were taken. Women were rare in these parts, and so the men were desperate to find themselves a wife. She knew her pa was going to settle her down with someone. The barn-raising had given her hope, as Ephraim had done what none had done before him--he made her feel special.

Apparently she was too special. Any warm feelings she'd had towards Ephraim disappeared the night he kidnapped her. Being in his arms terrified her. The fright and trauma went away over times--the boys had never attempted to do anything else. There was no need to fear them anymore, but the anger and hurt remained.

Now she was angry that she had dreamed about that special day. She'd dreamed about it before, immediately after, when nearly the whole town became anti-Pontipees, and Liza secretly daydreamed about marrying Ephraim, about what getting away from that town and what life with Ephraim would be like.

She'd never pictured that being up here would bore her so much. She'd wanted away from the townspeople, away from their prejudices and away from all of those suitors. Unfortunately, being away from all of that also meant being away from her parents. And up here, with the boys taking care of all the farm chores and with the same people for company every minute, left her with nothing to do.

Liza tried to go back to sleep, but it eluded her. She tossed and turned a couple of times before giving up entirely. What was there to do so late at night, with no one to talk to and only Plutarch's Lives for reading material? If someone tried reading it aloud again she might just take it outside and bury it in the snow.

Finally, as the sun just began to peak at the lands from the furthest mountaintop, Liza grabbed her blanket and slowly made her way to the window. The room faced the southeast. In an hour or so, the sun would be up. Another day of house chores, cooking, reading and snow. She watched what she could see of the snow falling, surprised that it seemed to be coming down peacefully. She'd watched the blizzard-like conditions for nearly tow months, but this was actually beautiful.

She peered down at the barn, where the six brothers were sleeping. Ephraim had apologized, which she supposed meant something. But it was his fault she was going to be stuck up here until spring. The pass wouldn't open for several more months, and by then she might have just gone completely insane.

But if they were all going to be up there together for seven more moths, she might as well learn to accept it, she realized. What was done was done and couldn't be changed. Even if Martha and Sarah would have none of it and continued to be disapproving didn't mean she had to be. It wouldn't be sudden, but Liza knew she had to let go of her anger. She looked back at Dorcas and wondered how she had been able to release it all so quickly, and above that, spend time with her kidnapper and rebuild what they'd started.

As she thought about it, it occurred to Liza that of the six girls, Dorcas had adjusted to the situation the best, and was not only surviving here but actually living here and enjoying it. Dorcas was happy up here, and for as long as Liza had anger and resentment and hurt, she would not be. With seven months stretching out before her, Liza realized that how that time would be for her was her choice.

* * *

For the most part, Ephraim thought as he started up a small fire, he had adjusted to being cold. His toes, however, screamed their protest at the never ending cold they felt. He could get them warm for a few minutes before having to venture outside for the chores. The pace of the snowfall had lightened a bit, but only deceptively. It wouldn't last. The only way he could survive the rest of this winter was to squash hope with fact.

With that lingering thought in his mind, Ephraim nodded greeting to his brothers as they joined him around the fire. He wasn't usually the first up, but they'd all had their rough nights so it wasn't unexpected. He was silent as they ate, thankful none of them bugged him about it, if they even noticed. He knew he would always be the quiet one in the family. His silence this morning, however, was spurned by a shame at the thoughts he'd spent the night awake with.

After Adam had taken off for the hunting lodge, the other brothers had all discussed it and decided they needed to stay, to mend things with Millie, to make things up to the girls wherever possible, and to take care of the farm. The girls were not farmers, and this was Millie's first winter up here. They were needed here, and once that had been decided, it had never again been mentioned, but last night Ephraim's thoughts had been with his oldest brother, sleeping in warm bed by a hot fire. They'd all worried for Adam's safety, of course, and a large portion of Ephraim's desire to take off for the lodge was to be sure that Adam was well. He couldn't deny there was more to it; he was sick of the cold, of sleeping next to a horse, of being so close to the woman he loved and feeling her hatred for him. Taking refuge at the lodge with Adam sounded like a welcome reprieve, an escape he craved more and more. How could he tell his brothers what he wanted to do, especially now that Millie was pregnant?

He picked at his food, knowing he'd have to eat it all eventually to have the strength to do his chores. His brothers were also slow to eat this morning, the mood among everyone glum. Ephraim had just taken his first real bite when the barn door opened. Everyone looked over in surprise, which for Ephraim turned to astonishment when Liza walked in. She had a blanket wrapped around herself, but half of her skirt was drenched from walking through the snow.

The men all stood. She halted in the door, squared her shoulders and cleared her throat. She stared at Ephraim until the others took the hint and left, not a word passing between them.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked her.

"I came to talk to you."

Confusion filled Ephraim's expression. "I thought you said--"

"I know what I said, but things are a bit different now."

"Different? Different how?"

Liza took in a deep breath. "I said that knowing you were sorry, hearing you apologize, didn't change anything, and yesterday that was true. Today... I'm tired of being angry and miserable. So I'm going to forgive you."

Ephraim kicked at the dirt uncomfortably. "I'm not sure it works like that."

Liza shrugged, a smile tugging at her lips. "Sure it does. Can I join you for breakfast?"

He gestured for her to sit, and when she had done so, he sat down next to her. They didn't talk as they ate, but the silence felt comfortable between them. When they were done, and put their dishes on the ground, she smiled over at him.

"This is much better, isn't it?"

"You're really not angry anymore?" It was too much to hope for.

"I thought letting it go would be hard, but once I'd decided to, it left. It felt pretty freeing, and now we can be friends." Her smile remained as she stood. "I'll try to bring you and your brothers a pie or two for lunch."

All thoughts of joining Adam at the lodge gone, Ephraim felt warmth spread all the way down through his toes.

**TBC**

**Next chapter: Frank and Sarah! Don't forget to leave a review! Thanks!  
**


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